In the year of the horse, 23 becomes one.

The meaning of life is the pursuit of happiness. This is very debatable, though! Some have argued that if hedonism were the answer, we would all be unconscious creatures of instinct (i.e. 'ignorance is bliss'). I disagree because consciousness can bring us to higher levels of pleasure, even though some pain must be borne in the process.

In an experience of meditation, I have managed to reconcile the whole of my philosophy, the pursuits for wisdom and happiness, into a single object, thereby 'proving' the above point...

Note: This isn't saying that everything is suffering! There's a lot of happiness around :-)	There is unhappiness in the world.
Conditioning: brainwashing, biased upbringing or education, prejudice, taboos, habits, formalities long devoid of meaning. Anything we accept simply because we're used to it.	Unhappiness is caused by conditioning. This is a personal revelation, and not very obvious to explain. When we are used to certain things being acceptable, the other things are regarded as negative.
Life is a game, not one of skill, strength or power, but a game of attitude.	Happiness can be restored by abandoning the conditioning. Again, this is hard to explain unless you experience it yourself. When you rid yourself of the notions of 'acceptable' and 'unacceptable', you can see a lot less misery around. You'll wonder why many people are constantly making themselves miserable, via the fixed prejudices they maintain.
	This comes about naturally, with an open mind and critical thinking; you could even call it 'scientific thinking'. Making conscious choices, instead of working as a robot of habits. This is mindfulness.
Metta: universal loving kindness Mindfulness: concentration, awareness	So the two meditative approaches: Metta and Mindfulness, become one.
To me, the meaning of life is to look for different meanings of life, as many and diverse as possible!	My guiding principle in life, the Delta or Change, has come about because I enjoy it. Incidentally, it is a wonderfully suitable way into a mental liberation from the conditioning. Now it all fits together.
	My long-term quest of teaching the world to think for themselves, is therefore equivalent with the ultimate quest of life.

Did that seem overly Buddhistic? It's neither intended nor avoided. In all honesty, this is again one of the moments when my views just happen to coincide with canonically Buddhistic ones. That shouldn't yet attach me to any labels.

Note: I haven't argued if hedonism or hogosophy (= hogging for wisdom =) is in fact the meaning of life. This is merely closing a gap between seemingly opposite moral theories (thereby, if you favour one, making the other more sensible).

You may also want to see my other philosophy page. It's less refined and has been partially replaced by other sections on these pages, but the views are still valid. Here's also a page about synchronicity :)

Risto A. Paju